Two Scientists from France take half the Nobel Prize for HIV discovery

October 25, 2008

French scientists who discovered the HIV-AIDS virus share Nobel Prize for Medicine

Françoise Barré -Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier of France have been awarded the Nobel prize for Medicine for their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, which has since  killed 25 million people since it was identified by the Frenchmen in the 1980s. They shared this year’s Nobel with Harald zur Hausen of Germany, who won for his discovery of the human papilloma viruses that can cause cervical cancer. The popular drug Gardasil was developed to combat the this virus.

French scientists Barré-Sinoussi and Montagnier were cited for identifying HIV  25 years ago in early and late stages of infection from lymph nodes.  Other scientists in France and around the world later built on that first step to learn how HIV replicates and damages cells. These discoveries led in turn to a way to screen the blood supply, protecting more people from contracting AIDS from blood transfusions,  and to provide life-saving treatments.

The Nobel Prize to the French scientists is a decisive moral and real victory for Montagnier in a long-running dispute over who first discovered and identified the virus. The other person to claim first discovery is Dr. Robert Gallo, then of the U.S. National Cancer Institute. But the Nobel committee came down firmly in favor of the scientists from France.

Medicine is traditionally the first of the Nobel prizes to be awarded every year. Alfred Nobel, a Swedish man credited with inventing dynamite, created the prizes in his will in the areas of medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace. The economics prize was created by Sweden’s central bank in 1968.

The prizes the scientists will receive include $1.4 million, a diploma and an invitation to the gala awards ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo on Dec. 10, 2008. That date is the anniversary of Nobel’s death in 1896.

Written by Web in France team - Filed Under Featured, Health, News

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